"It would be my wish to do that as far as is possible, but obviously if there are aspects because of his prominence, that he has not sought, that would lead to a threat dimension that would be taken into account by commanding officers," he said.

"That is for them to judge but my plea would be to let this young man... be treated as what he is and that's a potentially very good young officer."

A Clarence House spokesman also admitted that, in some circumstances, Prince Harry's presence could pose an increased risk to his regiment but said a "judgement call" would have to be made by his commanding officer.

Defence analyst Amyas Godfrey, of the Royal United Services Institute, said he thought the dangers of the prince serving in a battle zone had been overstated.

"It would be an enormous amount of resources to kidnap one British soldier or to specifically attack that one specific soldier, and in many ways that would be counter-productive for an insurgency," he said.